The Evolution of Metal in 10 Awesome Riffs

More than any other modern music genre, metal has undergone diverse changes over the past four decades as musicians bend and twist it to their own needs of expression. Starting with heavy metal in the late Sixties, the genre has shifted through a range of subgenres, including thrash, death metal, nu metal and metalcore, to name but a few.

YouTuber JusticemakerMusic took it upon himself to chronicle and demonstrate some of this evolution. In his video “Metal Riff Evolution,” the guitarist ties together 10 of his own metal riffs, each representing a different style, to create a four-minute-and-34-second audio timeline of metal’s transformation. The genres represented are, in order or appearance: heavy metal, thrash, death metal, black metal, melodic death metal, nu metal, post-hardcore, deathcore, metalcore and djent.

The riffs are great, the playing is excellent, and as a whole, this makes for one pretty terrific and anthemic piece of music.